In an email to Eurogamer, the anonymous whistle-blower, who goes by the nom de plume of Zero Dean, explained that the conditions he originally described might not have been the same company-wide.

"Different teams handled things in different ways - buildings team, environment team (landscape), programming team, character team, lighting team... My experience is with the buildings team. It is quite possible things were 'cheery' on other teams and I simply wasn't *aware* of it."

Elsewhere in the email, Dean also stepped away from his original claim that Rockstar might have been monitoring his emails.

"It is also *possible* that emails were *not* being monitored directly (there is "auto monitoring" to make sure no one is sending files outside of the studio - and then there is getting BCC'd on team emails - the first was happening, the second is my "conclusion") - it's *possible* that one of the three people I wrote the email to forwarded it to the higher up."

The former senior environment artist went on to insist that he didn't want to give the impression he was taking full credit for creating the Mexico section of the game.

"After I was stripped of my responsibilities, I was taken out of Mexico. I worked in various other areas of the game. So I *didn't build Mexico* - the guys who did (my former team), did a great job. I had almost nothing significant to do with it - except the terracotta roofs and a couple of buildings.

"Also, I really don't want any kind of 'recognition' associated with the game," he continued. "It's a great game, but the people who remained at Rockst*r long after I left are the people who deserve recognition - so the 'The world that Zero Dean built' is a bit over the top."

"Please remember that there are people still working in these conditions," Dean signed off, "and that this kind of exposure can actually make their working conditions worse - and that would suck."

We're awaiting comment from Rockstar regarding its side of the story and will update when we hear back.